Thrilled to Be Part of a “Literary Tea Party” Cookbook!

I’ve been near-bursting for weeks to share this news with you. And now I can finally say that (*drum roll*) I’ve written the introduction to a literary-themed cookbook!

A Literary Tea Party: Blends and Treats for Alice, Bilbo, Dorothy, Jo, and Book Lovers Everywhere is written and compiled by Alison Walsh, the “chef” of the literary food blog Alison’s Wonderland Recipes. It will feature over 50 recipes of finger-food savories, breads and scones, desserts, and homemade beverages from tea blends to punches and hot cocoas – all of which can be served for afternoon tea or other festive gatherings. The best part is, all of the recipes are inspired by foods that appear in well-known novels such as J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, and (of course) Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

The cover for Alison’s cookbook, featuring the original title. This will be updated prior to publication, of course. *wink*

I’ve been following Alison and her work at AWR for a couple years. We’ve also had many blog-comment conversations about food (why not?), books (turns out we have similar tastes in literature), and tea (again, why not?). So when Alison announced her cookbook deal several months ago, I wanted to throw armfuls of confetti to celebrate. She’s incredibly smart, enterprising, and enthusiastic, and I’m SO excited she has this amazing opportunity to reach a wider audience.

Then I received an email from Alison over the summer – and she asked if I would write the introduction for her cookbook. My first reaction was something like this:

Once I had recovered, I told Alison this:

A Literary Tea Party is currently scheduled for publication via Skyhorse in June 2018. If you’d like to learn more about the cookbook, check out the links below to some of Alison’s AWR posts. You can also add the book to your Goodreads shelf or pre-order it at Amazon U.S., Amazon U.K., Barnes & Noble, or IndieBound.

I’ve made the Killer Bunny Bites, Shrubbery Salad, Deeper n’ Ever Pie, the devils horseback bacon wrapped dates, the Monty Python cheese balls, poppadums, the veggie curry, lamb and plum stew, the borrower’s potato soup, amity salad, abnegation pea fries, the Little Women sweet potato and apple turnovers, the gouda and apple dumplings, the basil pesto nutcracker christmas tree (which has now become christmas tradition at my house. I’m making it again this year) … That’s all I can think of right now, but like I said, A LOT. XD And none of the recipes have I disliked. All of them are delicious!

Does it still feel surreal? Yes, and no. Now that I’ve written the introduction (the first draft of it, at least), it’s very much real. Or, on its way to becoming real. I don’t know. It’s hard to describe. *lol* It probably won’t feel completely real until the cookbook is published, and I’m holding a copy in my hands and reading the words I wrote.

Thanks, Lauren! And Alison’s website is a lot of fun, too. If you haven’t visited Wonderland Recipes yet, I highly recommend it. You never know what foods you’ll find there that you’ve read about before – and which ones you might want to make yourself at home. 😉